Phoenix
by Ambivalentanarchist
Summary: I wrote this story inspired by a vampire who had a power like that found in the phoenix stone as seen in the Vampire Dairies. What would the Volturi do if they happened upon a vampire with that kind of power? Co-Written with my friend JacksonMiracle.
1. Chapter 1

Happiness. Sadness. Anger. Fear. These are the four core human emotions. But perhaps the most motivating of the four is fear. It drives men to start wars, end relationships, or turn around and go back right when they're on the brink of discovering something great. Above all the others, fear cannot be ignored. Whether it's fear of the dark, of spiders, of failure, humans use many different ways to deal with them. One can deny them and hope they'll go away. For instance, freezing in place until a spider has crawled back into its hole, or closing one's eyes while standing on a bridge to give themselves the illusion they are safe on the ground and not hundreds of feet in the air. One can turn to a higher power for guidance. The Bible encourages people to pray whenever they are afraid, and put their trust in God to protect them. One can also choose the more difficult route and face their fears head on, conquering them, overcoming them. They may choose to remember, in the words of Franklin D. Roosevelt, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

Everyone is afraid of something, and often, the stronger one seems on the outside, the more fears they have on the inside. Indeed, even a vampire is afraid of something. More than likely, they'll never have to confront those fears. But, every now and then—when they least expect it—their fears will crash upon them like a crate of apples that's been pushed out of a plane and is hurtling toward the ground. Once the crate hits the ground, it will break open and the apples inside will be turned to mush. When a vampire confronts his fears, his soul will be trapped in a never-ending loop of torture, his mind breaking open and all that he ever was turning to mush until he overcomes that fear.

Aro clapped his hands together once, a huge, gleeful grin spread across his face.

"Oh, the Cullens! How wonderful it is of you to join us here!" He carefully the surveyed the group before him. "But where is your dear wife, Carlisle? And Bella and Edward? Their precious child? Surely, you didn't leave them behind in Forks." He feigned disappointment at the absence of so many from the North American coven.

Carlisle's voice was firm, but honest as he took on the natural leadership role of answering the question on behalf of his family.

"They're at the hotel. Your invitation wasn't specific as to whom you wished to see. It simply said myself and whatever various members of my family that could attend. It did not say if you meant the entire family, or just the members who I chose to accompany me."

"I see I shall have to remind my next invitation writer to be more specific when she prepares a greeting for me. Sadly, the current one will become tonight's meal." Aro shot each of the five Cullens a meaningful glance, daring one of them to speak in defense of the poor girl who wrote the postcard to Carlisle. Just when it looked like Rosalie would be the one to step forward, Alice placed a hand of warning on her shoulder, forcing the tall blonde to stay in place. "No doubt your little Alice foresaw that my only real purpose in inviting you here was to wish you well and discuss how the new additions to your family fair. I assume you took that to mean this visit would not be of such a serious nature as to apply a strict interpretation to your postcard. But that is no matter now. You see, I am truly concerned for your family's wellbeing, my old friend. Are you still as determined as always to enjoy this life the same way you would as if you were human? Never taking advantage of all the benefits open to you as a higher being? What I mean to say is: have you yet decided to stop your foolhardy quest of living among humans and acting like them? You really should abandon that endeavor in favor of living like the superior species you are."

"We are perfectly content and even happy with our lives the way they are now, Aro. We continue to fair well. Thank you for your concern." The kind doctor dare not voice his suspicion that Aro was up to something not so innocent.

"That is good to hear. I have made a few new additions to the Volturi guard in the months since we last spoke. Look around. I dare you to recognize and name more than just a few of those in attendance."

"I had noticed some new faces." Carlisle confirmed, but did not elaborate, choosing not to play into what he suspected was some kind of sinister game.

"Yes, and some of them have very unique abilities that in all my years, I have never seen before. Oliver!" Aro gestured for one particular gentleman to step forward. Alice gasped quietly as a sudden vision hit her, causing Jasper to grip her hand slightly tighter. "Oliver comes to us from across the pond, and he's quickly becoming invaluable in his role here."

"Thank you, my King. London was my home once." Oliver clarified his origins as if one wouldn't be able to tell from his thick English accent. "In London, you're either employed by Her Majesty's service or you're unemployed. I was indeed part of Her Majesty's Secret Service, tasked with locating, exposing, interrogating, and eliminating spies against the Queen. I was very good at my job. Proper interrogation centers around the exploitation of another's fears." As he spoke, he started to walk in a slow circle around the Cullens. Now, he stopped in front of Jasper, meeting the Major's eyes with a silent challenge. "I suspect that you've used this technique yourself, though, not as effectively as I may have. I could diagnose and abuse fears faster than anyone else in my unit, perhaps faster than anyone else in the entirety of Her Majesty's Secret Service. I suppose my human intuition on fears followed me into this life. Otherwise, I would never be able to do what I do. Vampire fears are far more intense than ordinary human fears. And far more likely to cause them to break than any other imaginable torture. If King Aro will allow me, I would be happy to demonstrate." He looked over his five choices like a vulture seeking out the freshest meat to feast upon.

"By all means, yes, please!" Aro gestured happily to his guests, giving Oliver permission to choose one on whom to demonstrate his ability.

Oliver grinned like he had just been handed the keys to unlock every blood bank in the city and gave Aro a bow before turning back to the Cullens, circling each of them once more before stopping in front of Emmett.

"You are a rather large bloke, aren't you? But the bigger they are, the more concentrated their fears seem to be. It's not difficult to locate fears once you know exactly where to look. And… there, I found one." He laughed maniacally, "I simply pluck it forward…" Oliver used his thumb and first finger to mime picking something out of the air, and the moment he jerked his hand upward, Emmett crashed to the floor with a groan of pain.

Rosalie dropped to her knees next to him. "Emmett! Em, come on, wake up, it's me! Emmett, can you hear me? What did you do to him!?" She fiercely demanded of Oliver, letting out a menacing growl and moving into an attack position. She would have followed through, too, if Alice, Jasper, and Carlisle weren't all working to hold her back.


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: This story is rated M and contains dark, mature themes._

 **Emmett**

He hadn't touched alcohol in almost a century. Like food, it smelt sour, bitter, and just wrong. Suffice it to say that it wasn't something most vampires would choose to imbibe unless forced. But, his vision was blurry. He felt dizzy. When he moved, he stumbled into the stool beside him. When he tried to speak, his words came out an embarrassing, almost unintelligible slur.

"That's it." The bartender beside him said with a heavy sigh. "I'm cutting you off."

He was human again, he realized dumbly. Or, at least, he was reliving one of his memories of being human. He couldn't be dreaming, that couldn't be right, he told himself. Still, his body moved without him telling it to, and he picked up the bottle beside him, smashing it against the far wall. He remembered his anger, his absolute rage that the party had been called to an end. It flowed through his veins like lava, and he had to actively remind himself that he really shouldn't be drinking any more. He had been young and stupid in his youth, and it had literally been the death of him.

It took all his concentration to force himself to storm out of the bar that looked almost like a shack with its chipped paint and sagging roof. Emmett had never minded those sort of details. Besides, what he had been looking for in those days had been a dive. Strong drinks, without the premium. Usually he would buy a bottle from the liquor store and go drinking in the woods, but that was just _so lonely_. He wanted touch, he wanted comfort. He wanted a woman, which was why he had been so angry about getting sent home early. He had been going home alone.

Despite the size of his family, Emmett had always felt lonely at home. It was the pressure to be the man of the house after his father's passing, the pressure to be strong and emotionless despite his own mourning that had broken him. He had cracked under the pressure. Despite all his efforts, he had failed his family. It wasn't long after this night that he had ended up mauled by a bear in the woods, leaving it to his brothers to provide for their family in his passing. He hated himself for having done that to them. He had tried to forget them, to forget what he had done. Over the years, the memories had begun to blur and fade, but just now they were bright and shiny, like a dew drop glistening in the sun.

The air was ice cold as he stumbled outside. One would think that it would have been sobering, but he swayed in the chilling wind, his body colliding with another.

"Excuse me." An all too familiar voice sniffed.

It was Rosalie. His Rosalie, a lovely blue jacket and skirt bringing out the color of her eyes, her wispy blonde hair rolling down in perfect curls around her face. She was painfully human, he could feel her warmth, but even so, she looked like a goddess. In his drunken vision she even seemed to glow.

"Oh, Rosie. I'm so glad you're here." He slurred, reaching out to grab her hand, probably too tight. He expected the same relief from her, but she didn't seem to recognize him. In fact, she looked terrified of him.

"I should be going." She said, her stilted and formal voice trembling. "It's rather late."

"No, no, no." The words came tumbling out of his mouth. Loneliness and desperation gripped him as tightly as he was gripping her poor wrist. "Don't leave."

"Let go of me!" She screamed.

She tried to tear herself away from him, but Emmett couldn't let her go. It was like he didn't have control of his own hand. She started crying, and the sight broke something in him. Still, he couldn't let go. His body was moving without his permission, clumsily drawing her to him, his free hand beginning to tear at her clothes. It was like he was watching a horror movie, only he was the antagonist. He was watching from the driver's seat, but it was like he wasn't even in control.

"Stop!" She sobbed, pitifully, as they wrestled on the ground. "Please."

He wanted nothing more than to stop. He remembered the early days with her, he remembered her intense fear of being touched, of more than being touched. He had been so patient in those days, because he loved her, and he understood her pain. But the man who was touching her now was no better than Royce. He was a monster.

He tried to stop himself, he tried harder than he had ever tired at anything else, but it was like it had already happened, he was just watching the inevitable play out. Except he wasn't just watching it. He was living it. He could feel the warmth of her body as flesh met flesh. He could feel rage, lust, and power wash over him as she cried, her eyes going dead as she tried to escape from what was happening in her mind. He could feel her jaw crack under his fist as he hit her, as if he wasn't taking enough from her.

When it was all over, she was still and cold, like a corpse. He wished that he was the one who was dead as control of his body was finally returned to him. He cried miserably as he cradled her ruined, broken body. It was his deepest, darkest fear realized: He was a monster. He had destroyed his mate.


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N: This chapter features an OC of my own making, Robyn. She also appears in Do No Harm, which is posted on JacksonMiracle's account. For those who will read both, is an entirely different imagining of the same character._

 **Robyn**

Her heels clicked gently against the ancient stone floors of the castle as she walked the halls. They were curiously empty today, absent of the usual vampires that patrolled it, clad in long, black, hooded capes that made them look like something out of a Victorian romance novel with their pale porcelain skin and crimson eyes. Her own irises were lighter, brighter, exhibiting her newborn status, though her mere presence in the castle halls at this moment belied the fact that she wasn't a part of the Volturi guard, despite much cajoling.

The fact that she was even here at all, alive, was nothing more than happenstance, an accident of fate. She had been lured into the castle along with her fellow tourists on a backpacking trip through Italy. When the doors had closed around them, it had been Marcus that had chosen her for his own meal. He didn't show much enthusiasm for it, which spoke to his broken spirit. He never maintained much interest in anything. She had heard rumors of a deceased wife, but it was a rather closely guarded secret in the castle, so she was left wondering more often than not. He had left her alive, barely, and had refused to finish her off. Perhaps something about her had reminded him of the wife she sometimes heard the older members of the guard whisper about, as he had refused to let anyone else do it, either.

She remembered little other than pain from that time. When it was over and her head had cleared, she was in his grandiose chambers, watching as he stared detachedly out his bedroom window as the sun rose. It was an amazing sight to her and her newfound senses, and he seemed to indulge her questions, but it wasn't long until she had been left to her own devices. She soon came to appreciate how rare it was for Marcus to care about anything, or anyone. Even his fleeting interest in her had made her a subject of much speculation around the castle. She was quite popular with some members of the guard, and openly scorned by others.

"What are you doing here?" Jane asked with no little venom as Robyn approached the intricately engraved doors of the main hall. "Aro is hosting important guests. He isn't to be interrupted."

"I know." She murmured, smirking to herself when Jane dropped to the ground in absolute agony. Jane didn't scream, like many of her victims did. Instead, she took large, unnecessary gulps of air. They were just as loud to any vampire with their ears on, but it had rendered the thorn in her side speechless, which had, after all, been her goal. "Aro himself summoned me. I was held up."

That, and she knew how much Aro in particular appreciated the drama of a delayed entrance. He was vicious and cruel, like almost every other vampire here, and in the six months she had made this place her home, it had begun to rub off on her.

Jane was still prone on the ground when Robyn pushed the door open. Alec simply stood there, opposite her. While he loved his sister dearly, his expression remained impassive. He cared little about their feud, and refrained from taking sides. It was a smart tactic that left him one of the only members of the guard that hadn't had their own gifts turned on them.

"Ah, Robyn, my dear." Aro smiled warmly at her as she entered the room, the corners of his mouth turning up sharply as he spotted Jane lying on the ground between the time when the doors opened and when they swung closed. "I suppose it's too much to ask that my two favorite girls get along?" He asked, his voice almost fatherly as he motioned for her to stand beside him.

"Sulpicia and I get along very well." She insisted, despite knowing it wasn't his wife that he was talking about. "I apologize for my lateness; I was held up with her and Athenodora."

"Well, then, I must forgive you." He laughed, as if it were some sort of secret joke between them. "I wanted to introduce you to a few people. These are the Cullens. Carlisle, Alice, Jasper, Rosalie, and… Emmett." He nodded to each in turn, finishing with Emmett's body, which twitched now and then, as if in pain. "I was about to kindly offer to ask Oliver to remove the effects of his gift from poor Emmett here. Though, I think it would only be fair if the Cullens were to do me a favor in return, don't you think, my dear?"

"I suppose so, yes." She nodded compliantly, knowing that any other answer would have been the wrong one. It was rather boring, having him speak to her purely for the benefit of someone else, but they had all been promised quite the feast after the Cullens were received, which was a diverting enough thought for her to endure a bit longer.

"You see, Robyn here has a very special gift as well." He continued, his expression turning almost impish with glee. "Why don't you demonstrate on… Carlisle?"

Carlisle appeared to be the most level-headed of the group, the good man in the storm, he would approach whatever came his way calmly, and with determination. He was a strong leader, sensible. He wouldn't have been the person that she would have chosen, if she had been given the choice. She would have chosen the pixie. The man beside her was clearly her mate, and with one already panicking, it would have been enough to fracture the group into giving Aro whatever it was that he was asking. Still, maybe Aro wanted to do things the hard way, she thought. He always did have a flair for the dramatic.

"As you wish." She replied simply, stepping down from beside his ornate throne to stand in front of the tall, blonde man. She half-expected him to attack her, but he simply stood there, his amber eyes boring into her scarlet ones as he awaited his fate. Her hand rose in the air, much like Oliver's had, hovering for only a moment before her delicate fingers plucked at nothingness, as if catching a piece of lint from an invisible curtain, causing Carlisle to gasp in surprise before he, too, fell to the ground beside his son.


	4. Chapter 4

**Carlisle**

He was clad in his white lab coat at Forks Hospital, wearing a blue dress shirt and a silk tie Alice had proudly presented him with one father's day. He was sure that the tiny scrap of fabric had cost her at least ten times it's worth, with her expensive tastes, but he was nonetheless more than happy to wear it. Despite his usual frugality, the gift made him feel proud. It was a visible sign that Alice thought of him as her father, that she loved and respected him the way he so desperately craved from his adoptive children.

Still, his attention on the vestment was quickly drawn away by two of the four paramedics that lived in Forks rushing though the hospital's front doors with a writhing man on a gurney. Carlisle was quick to notice two things. The first being that the man had been shot and was bleeding profusely from his shoulder, and the second being that he was handcuffed to the gurney on both sides. The suspicions he drew from what he saw were immediately proven right as Chief Swan followed behind the gurney by only a few steps.

"He might be violent." Bella's father warned tersely. He looked like he probably wanted to say more, but it was obvious that the words were against his better judgement. Instead, he pressed his lips tightly together and shook his head. "Make sure you keep the restraints on."

"Of course." He answered smoothly, before following the gurney into the trauma room at a jog.

It wasn't every day that a bullet wound appeared at Forks Hospital, and the few times he had seen them, they had exclusively been hunting accidents. This was something different entirely. It called into question all the things that doctors never wanted to ask themselves. Was every life equal? Was it his responsibility to heal someone who was considered so dangerous by the authorities that he had been shot, and even then, kept restrained? Did helping a criminal make you part of the solution, or part of the problem? Of course, the Hippocratic Oath was supposed to have answered all those questions. He was a healer. It was his duty to help those in need when he had the ability. Still—he couldn't help but ask himself—was he truly doing the right thing?

It shouldn't have even been a question. He should have already begun removing the bullet from the man's shoulder as the paramedics were urging him to do. He knew the procedure by heart. He would have to give him something for the pain, then he would remove the offending object carefully with forceps before fastidiously cleaning and closing the wound. It was far enough away from all the major arteries that he wouldn't have had to worry about putting him under. Even if he had struggled, it would have only increased his chances of scarring. The man should have lived, without a doubt.

He didn't. Carlisle did the one thing he had sworn he would never do—he had done more harm than good. It was the man's blood that had first distracted him. He had taken the smallest of breaths, trying to clear his mind… And it had affected him. His control had been concrete, absolute, unquestionable for centuries, and only now had he failed. And he wasn't even sure if this man was guilty. His memories of Edward's time feeding on the scum of society came to mind and he visibly cringed. He had fallen into the same trap as his son. He was a hypocrite, and worse, his distraction caused him to make a mistake he never should have made, and the man before him slumped into unconsciousness. In his distraction, he had overdosed him on painkillers.

The paramedics didn't realize what had happened at first, they had simply walked away and wished him luck. They left him alone, behind closed doors, with a dying man. There were still things he could do. Charcoal was so effective at absorbing overdoses of similar substances, but he didn't even try. He allowed the man to die. It was like some sort of warped dream. He broke. He gave into his desire to feed, drinking deeply from the man's neck until he was really and truly dead. The drugs in his system should have dulled the taste, but it was so warm, so rich.

He didn't even notice, at first, when the door opened again. There stood Alice, her expression one of disbelief as she watched him stand up straight, human blood on his lips. He realized distantly that she must have seen his decision, she must have been coming to stop him. But, even with the certainty her gift afforded her, she seemed reluctant to accept what she had seen—what she was seeing.

"You—You were trying to save him, weren't you?" She pressed, and he could say nothing in his own defense. "You must have… That's the only reason that you could… Just say something! Tell me what happened, Dad, please."

The temptation to lie was there like it never had been before, but just as quickly as the thought had passed thought his mind, Edward was standing beside Alice, looking even more betrayed than he had when Carlisle had chosen Bella's side against him and agreed to turn her. Carlisle knew that his children looked up to him, that they drew strength from his own.

 _Please, son_. He thought desperately. _Allow me to explain. We have all of us made mistakes—_

"This wasn't a mistake!" Edward bit out, catching Alice's attention. "You did this on purpose! You let it happen! Everything… Everything you ever taught us has been a lie!"

When they stormed away, he couldn't even find the strength to follow them. Edward wasn't wrong. This was a betrayal unparalleled by any other, and he wasn't sure his family would ever forgive him for it, though he was already silently praying that they would, that they would understand.

 _Perhaps, there can be a lesson here._ He thought, solemnly, as he covered the corpse with a sheet. _That none of us can expect perfection from ourselves_.

He returned home as soon as he had disposed of the body, forging the necessary documents to explain the man's death and have him cremated in the Hospital morgue. It had only taken about an hour, but the house he had built for his family was abandoned when he returned, absent of most of his family member's belongings. There was no explanation, no note, but he understood all the same. His family had left him behind. He was alone, again.


	5. Chapter 5

**Jasper**

He allowed Alice to move to Carlisle's side the moment the patriarch fell to the ground, and watched as the tiny woman reached forward to cradle their leader's head in her lap. Rosalie was finally under control, thanks in part to the waves of calm he had been sending her the moment she had given any indication of turning from protection over Emmett's prone form to seeking revenge against the man who had caused his current condition. He unconsciously stood a little taller as he took a few steps forward so that he could form a barrier between the so-called King and the rest of his family.

"What is it that you want, Aro?" His voice was low and dark, not dangerous, but just firm enough to let the other man know that he was all seriousness. He would not tolerate any more games. He was vaguely aware of the new vampire Aro had introduced to them as Robyn, studying him out of the corner of her eye. She pretended to be disinterested, but he couldn't ignore the sensation of being visually dissected by her like he was an insect frozen in time, preserved in alcohol, plastered to a microscope slide, and examined under penetrating magnification.

"I'm so glad that you asked," Aro beamed with pride. "My requirements are quite simple. I tell Oliver and Robyn to release Emmett and Carlisle, and you agree to have one member of your coven join my coven. I give you what you want. You give me what I want. It's that simple. Just say the word and they'll be back to you as if nothing ever happened. The Cullen chosen to join me will be treated in the grandest of ways. They'll never want for a thing. It will be fantastic. Oh, and one more thing, before you volunteer someone, I want one of you who is gifted. Those are my terms. What say you?"

"Go to Hell, Aro. That will never happen and you know it." Jasper's voice quickly turned to a growl as he prepared to defend the two helpless men, and the two women behind him. "You are holding two members of our coven as prisoner, you will return them to us immediately. In exchange, I will spare your life."

Aro rolled his eyes and let out a long-suffering sigh.

"I should have known you'd make this hard on yourselves. Oliver, take care of this problem for me. Perhaps the girls will be more interested in capitulating to the generous deal I have offered."

Oliver bowed to Aro before complying with his orders and flashing over to Jasper's side, plucking the fear forward in his mind just like he had done to Emmett, and Robyn had done to Carlisle.

"Three down. Who's next, my King?"

Jasper let out a tiny moan of pain as he collapsed to the floor, blackness surrounding him. When he opened his eyes again, he was no longer in Aro's throne room in the castle in Volterra. He was in a much more familiar setting. The air around him was hot and pungent with the scent of sweat and blood. It was a myth that vampires didn't sweat. They didn't have a sustenance that leaked out of their pores in liquid form and stains their clothes, but they tended to start to smell overly ripe when pushed to their physical limits, mentally drained, and broken to the point of merely trying to survive. A starving vampire's scent changed to something wholly unpleasant, and only returned to a normal state after feeding. If left unfed long enough, they will begin to petrify. It was not a fun experience to undergo, much less enjoyable to witness.

"Wakey, wakey, Major dear!" An all too familiar voice rung out, a shadow spread across across the floor of his tent after the flap had been thrown open, allowing the sun to creep inside.

If his heart hadn't already stopped beating long ago, this particular greeting would have done the trick instantly. Maria. The one vampire in history that could truly frighten the God of War. He sprang to attention out of a habit that would never die no matter how long he walked this earth as a free man.

"Come along, Major, I have a surprise for you!" Maria continued to gush with a joy so terrible, it could only be described as evil.

In spite of the protests that every bone in his body were screaming at him, he followed Maria out of the tent and across camp to a locked cage where she kept the most valuable prisoners. He nearly toppled over in a terror so deep and indescribable that it would have made the events of WWII seem like something thought out by a pair of children and a pile of Legos. "No, Mistress, not them." He gasped in disbelief as he looked over the eight occupants of the cell. Carlisle, Esme, Emmett, Rosalie, Alice, Renesmee, Edward, Bella. They were all here. His family, captured by the woman he hated most in this life.

Maria's eyebrows shot skyward at her Major's protests.

"No? Now, you know good and well, Major, that the word 'No' is not one that I allow to be spoken in this camp, unless it's, 'No, Mistress, I am not tired and giving up, I am fighting longer and harder.'"

"I… I'm sorry, Mistress, I was just surprised." The Major responded as if he had never allowed the weakness that was Jasper to come through the mask he had spent decades perfecting. "It will not happen again. What do you intend to do with these prisoners, and how may I assist you?"

Maria smiled proudly at her pet Major.

"It's not what I intend to do with them, it's what you intend to do with them. Get as much information from them as you can regarding the movements of my enemies, and you when you feel you can get nothing more out of them, kill them. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Mistress, I understand. It will be done as you have commanded." He watched Maria walk away for a long time before turning to gaze upon the prisoners. He pointed to Carlisle at random. "You, step forward." He narrowed his eyes on the golden-haired vampire, and shot a cannonball of compliance and respect at the man. "Give me a reason to let you live."

Carlisle didn't hesitate in response, not even needing the added emotions that Jasper was feeding him to encourage his cooperation. "I cannot. You must do whatever you must do, Son. Know that I forgive you, I won't hold this against you."

Jasper blinked a few times as if it physically pained him to have to carry forward with this dreaded task that Maria had bestowed upon him, but he was the Major, and this was his job. The Cullens were worthless nobodies. They were his family, he loved them each in their own special ways, but Maria had given him an order, and there was no fighting her orders, no matter how bad the consequences were.

He let out a harsh snarl. "I do not need your forgiveness, you spineless coward! I am not your son! You are not my father! I despise you! You will die today because my Mistress has commanded it and against her there is none who can stand." He quickly snapped Carlisle's neck before the more rational side of himself could gain a single strand of control over his actions. He slung the now lifeless body of the man who had given him a home and had loved him over his shoulder and carried him toward the pyre at the center of the camp, tossing him in, and watching the purple plume of smoke rise, a sick grin on his face. "Esme, you're next!"

The screaming in his head was drowned out by the dark laughter of the Major who had assumed control of his body. _No, no, no! Can't you see what's happening here!? She's using you! She… She… Major, no, no, please! Don't kill them! Don't hurt them! Please! Don't be her puppet!_

But, he was. He was helpless against her, he realized brokenly, as wave after wave of purple smoke rose into the air. Each the last physical proof he had that the family he had loved so dearly had ever existed, lost to the wind. All because he was too weak to fight Maria.


	6. Chapter 6

**Rosalie**

She looked around at the fallen members of her family before turning her angry gaze on Aro. "You don't seriously think that this is going to make any of us want to join your guard? If anything, it'll make us more opposed to it."

Aro held up a hand to silence her. "I don't care if _you_ want to join my guard, child. I only care what _Alice_ has to say about it. After all, she's the one that I'm really asking to join with me. She has a talent that should be treasured, and I will do just that. What say you, Alice? Will you join my guard and free your family from the awful torture that Oliver and Robyn have trapped them in?" He held out the same hand to her in offering, inviting her to connect with him.

Rosalie directed her attention to Alice, shaking her head slightly. "Don't do it, Ali. Don't give in to him. There is nothing to say that even if you do join his stupid guard, he will hold up his end of the bargain and release the others. Do not acquiesce without proof that he'll order Oliver to release the others. And even then, think very long and carefully before you say or agree to do anything."

"I've heard enough!" Aro shouted in annoyance when the blonde refused to allow his coveted angel to bond with him and become part of his extended family. "Oliver, you know what to do."

Blackness enveloped Rosalie before she could get another word out, before she could even think to react. She wasn't aware of her body falling to the ground next to her mate, she was only aware of the darkness, cold, and finally pain. A burning ring of fire circled around her entire lower half, settling somewhere between her legs. She was aware of a brightness shining down on her from overhead, a semi-firm surface under her back. Her legs were spread wide apart and bent towards her body at the knee. A woman was screaming somewhere in the background. Belatedly, she realized that the screams were her own. She opened her eyes when she finally became aware of a soft, warm hand clinging to hers. Glancing to her left, she saw the face of her beloved, and managed to force a smile to her lips as she gazed into his eyes.

"I'm so proud of you, Rosie. I know you can do this, just one more really big push. You got this. It won't be long and then we'll get to see our daughter for the first time." Emmett's baritone voice encouraged her as another wave of pain engulfed her abdomen.

Rosalie finally understood the pressure she was feeling between legs, the pain all over her entire midsection, front and back. She was about to give birth. _A daughter? I'm human again. How is that possible? And what does this have to do with whatever Oliver's doing to my mind? This should not be happening. It isn't real. But, it feels real. It really feels real. I never realized that childbirth was this painful! It's almost as bad as being turned!_ She cried out in agony as she forced her body to cooperate through one last push to deliver her child. Falling back on the bed, exhausted and sweaty, within seconds of feeling something slip out of her. She craned her neck to get a look at the bundle of blankets and limbs in the doctor's arms.

"Is she ok?" She asked, torn between joy and utter terror.

A few tense moments later a baby's cry echoed in the white, sterile room. Tears of relief flooded her eyes as the bundle was carefully handed over to her. The nurse assisted her in opening the top of her gown just enough to place the warm, pink baby against her, initiating skin to skin contact. Emmett still clung to one of her hands, but now he placed one of the fingers from his other hand gently, tenderly against their daughter's hand, letting the newborn infant know that both her parents were there for her from the very beginning.

"Hi, baby. Hi. We're you're parents. I can't believe you're finally here. You're so beautiful and perfect. We love you so much, Lillian McCarty. Our Lily. Welcome to the world." Rosalie's silent tears continued to flow freely down her cheeks as she basked in the glow of the baby she had created with the man she loved.

The moment didn't last long before Lillian was wheeled away to be cleaned and checked over, leaving Rosalie to get some much needed sleep. Real sleep, the sleep that had eluded her for so long since she had become a vampire. When she woke up again, it was to find Emmett holding a crying Lily. He was standing next to the bed, gently rocking the tiny baby in his arms and whispering words of assurance to her.

"Sorry, Rosie, I didn't want to wake you, but Lily's getting hungry, and I know how important it is to you to feed her yourself…" His voice trailed off awkwardly as Rosalie held out her arms to accept the child.

Nursing Lily seemed to come naturally to her as she supported the baby's head while she suckled. The moment brought the tiny family even closer together, it seemed perfect. But again, the bonding time was cut short when Lily had her fill of milk and promptly fell asleep.

Darkness fell over Rosalie again. She had the odd feeling that time was passing by without her being fully aware of it. She was snapped out of the darkness by a sudden scream and tiny feet pounding down the hallway toward the room she shared with Emmett. Lily was six years old now, something in the back of her mind told her. She had started Kindergarten the year before and was thriving. She was the smartest kid in her class, her teacher had even wanted to place her in an advanced class.

"Mommy! Daddy!" A sniffling Lily cried in anguish as she climbed into bed with them.

"What's wrong, baby? Are you hurt?" Panic washed over Rosalie, almost as strong as the panic that her daughter was feeling.

"There's a monster in my closet!" Lily cried out again.

"Oh, no! Well, you had better stay in here with us for the night where it's safe! Then, first thing in the morning, Daddy can go up to your room and set a monster trap to catch it so it can't bother you anymore." She gently reassured the young child.

"Can he set one under the bed too? The monster likes to hide there sometimes!" Lily insisted.

"Of course, he can, baby. You don't worry about a thing, Daddy will catch that monster." At her words, Lily snuggled up close to her side and yawned a great big yawn before the blackness fell around them again.

This time when the darkness dissipated, Rosalie found herself sitting next to an obviously sick thirteen-year-old Lily. The teenager was alternating between bouts of restless sleep and episodes of nausea. Rosalie doubted seriously that there was anything left in the tiny girl to throw up, but somehow there was always something coming to the surface during the times when Lily was awake. Ginger ale and saltines refused to settle the acid in her stomach, and the medicine the doctor gave her for the flu seemed to be having very little, if any, effect. Rosalie gently brushed her fingers through Lily's matted and sweat soaked hair.

"Mom?" Lily's tiny voice groaned out.

"Yes, baby, I'm here." Rosalie assured her precious child.

"Can you read to me?" It had been years since the teenager had asked either of her parents to read to her, but Rosalie simply gave her a tight smile and a short nod as she picked up her daughter's current book from the top of the night stand.

"Eclipse, Chapter seven. 'Do you want to hear my story? It doesn't have a happy ending—but which of ours does? If we had happy endings, we'd all be under gravestones now. I lived in a different world than you do. My human world was a much simpler place. It was 1933. I was 18 and I was beautiful. My life was perfect. My parents were thoroughly middle class. My father had a stable job in a bank, something that I realize now he was smug about—he saw his prosperity as a reward for talent and hard work, rather than acknowledging the luck involved. I took it all for granted then; in my home, it was as if the Great Depression was only a troublesome rumor. It was my mother's job to keep our house—and myself and my two younger brothers—in spotless order. It was clear that I was both her first priority and her favorite. I didn't fully understand it at the time, but I was vaguely aware that my parents weren't satisfied with what they had, even if it was so much more than most. They wanted more. They had social aspirations—social climbers, I suppose you could call them. My beauty was like a gift to them. They saw so much more potential in it than I did. They weren't satisfied, but I was. I was thrilled to be me. Pleased that men's eyes watched me everywhere I went, from the year I turned 12. Delighted that my girlfriends sighed with envy when they touched my hair. Happy that my mother was proud of me and my father liked to buy me pretty dresses. I knew what I wanted out of life, and there didn't seem to be any way I wouldn't get exactly what I wanted. I wanted to be loved, to be adored. I wanted to have a huge, flowery wedding, where everyone in town would watch me walk down the aisle on my father's arm and think I was the most beautiful thing they had ever seen. Admiration was like air to me. I was silly and shallow, but I was content. My parents influence had been such that I also wanted the material things of life. I wanted a big house with elegant furnishings that someone else would clean and a modern kitchen that someone else would cook in. There were a few things I wanted that were more meaningful. One thing in particular. I yearned for my own little baby.' Lily?" Rosalie stopped reading for a moment and looked over at her daughter who had mercifully fallen asleep again.

Darkness came to her one more time. When she came out of it this last time, she was in much the same kind of hospital room as she had been in at the start of this nightmare. Everything was starting to come together. Giving birth to a baby, having a real family, reading that book which sounded so much like her own story, and now this. Lily lay in a hospital bed, a host of machines hooked up to her body.

"It's time." The words were the most painful ones she would ever hear in her life and they were spoken by a doctor in a long white lab coat. Rosalie watched in horror as the doctor started to turn off the machines keeping her baby girl alive. A steady beeping continued to fill the room for a good five minutes after the last machine was flipped off, but then the noise changed, it faltered, slowed. Lily struggled for air, a gasp, a cough, two more broken beeps that indicated her heart was failing. Rosalie held tightly to one of the teenager's hands as Emmett grasped the other one. Tears were flowing freely down both their cheeks.

 _No, no, no, not this! I'll do anything! Please, not this! This is the last thing I want! Please! It was perfect! I finally had exactly what I wanted and now… Now, it's being torn away from me! I've wanted this for so long… And then to have it taken away again… Oh, poor Lily. I did this to her. I'm so shallow and selfish. All I ever wanted was a baby and now I'm losing her._

A final, long, monotone beep sounded in the room. Lily's heart had stopped beating. She was gone, lost to them, and the doctor's final words proved it.

"Lillian McCarty, time of death: 10:15pm."


	7. Chapter 7

_A/N: Gabriel is on OC belonging to JacksonMiracle. Please do not use him without her permission._

 **Gabriel**

Muscle. Power. Strength. Physical might. Neutralizer. Punisher. No matter what title they bestowed upon him, it all meant the same thing. Essentially, it meant that he was the guy people would call when they needed someone to do their dirty work. He didn't particularly like it, but he hadn't much choice in it, either. This wasn't the life he would have chosen for himself. It was the life thrust upon him when a sport that he loved turned deadly.

Gabriel Aguado had been the starting Playmaker for the FC Barcelona team for three years. He had been a rising star in the sports world, enjoying his fifteen minutes of fame for his amazing cross-field passes when a tragic accident ended his career. During a game in Italy against Juventus FC, he was shoved into a goal post by an overly enthusiastic member of the opposition. Ordinarily, he would have been fine, maybe he might have been put out of play with a concussion, but the accident knocked a stray clot loose in his brain. The resulting stroke left him brain dead. If it hadn't been for the errant vampire posing as an orderly so he could steal blood from the hospital blood bank that day, Gabriel had no doubt that his family would have pulled the plug on him.

Lucky for him, the hospital had begun catching on to their missing blood bags the day he was admitted. The vampire orderly was refused access to the blood bank just as Gabriel was being pronounced brain dead. He pulled the curtain and started feeding on Gabriel, but a wayward nurse interrupted him before he could finish the job. There was just enough venom in his system to start repairs on his brain while artificial machines kept his heart beating. It wasn't long before Gabriel was burning from the inside out, with no way to call out in distress thanks to his partially nonfunctioning brain. When the vampire orderly returned hours later, it was to clean up his mess.

He pulled a sheet over Gabriel's head and carted him away to the morgue, thinking he was dead. By some miracle, he managed to hang on long enough to finish changing and woke up three days later, laying on a cold metal tray in a box along a wall in the hospital basement. His first victim was the morgue attendant. Long story short, it wasn't long until his actions caught the attention of the Volturi. Aro had spared his life in exchange for a pledge of life long service in the guard.

And now, he was here. The man who was expected to get his hands dirty, so that his betters didn't have to be bothered with such 'trivial' things.

He watched as one by one, the Cullens succumbed to Oliver's ability to trap them in their own mind, enduring a never ending loop of their greatest fears until he decided to release them. He knew that the time to show off his own purpose within the guard was getting close. The short one, the pixie, Alice, was still protesting Aro's pleas for her join the guard. There was only so much of this that Aro would tolerate before he ordered Gabriel to dispense with the unpleasant little girl. His hands itched with anticipation, knowing that the time for him to act was growing closer with each tick of the second hand on his watch.


	8. Chapter 8

**Alice**

It was difficult to feign calm when all she wanted to do was panic. From the moment they had received the letter in the mail from the Volturi, Alice knew that simply ignoring it and going on with their lives wasn't an option. Aro was too vain to allow such a blatant show of disrespect to go unpunished. So, then it became a game of appeasing him. How much would they have to do to placate him? Who could they get away with leaving behind without angering him? They all agreed that Carlisle would have to go. He was the one who knew Aro best, after all, and the only one the invitation had mentioned by name.

From there, it had been a long series of arguments to decide who would accompany him. Esme wanted to be there for moral support, but Carlisle was too concerned that she might be used against him to allow it. And besides, they all knew that Aro had little interest in the members of their family without gifts. Edward wanted to come, to help them anticipate what Aro was planning, but Alice insisted that she could handle it. He was a husband, a father now. He had other people to think about. He couldn't go charging into danger like he had before. And her? Well, she was married to danger.

 _This was supposed to be the safe choice._ She mourned, as she looked at the fallen bodies around her. _Where did it all go wrong? When Emmett spoke up? Or maybe… Maybe I should have said something, not Carlisle_.

"Alice," Aro called, his voice not unkind. In fact, it was rather warm, now that every other Cullen in the room had been removed from the conversation. "I do desire an answer, my dear."

"I've tried so hard to understand you." She said, the words spilling out of her mouth without her permission as her gaze remained fixed on her loved ones. Especially her beloved Jasper, whose face was fixed with such pain, the kind of pain he had always tried and failed to hide from her on those few occasions he opened up about his violent and turbulent beginnings. "And, I don't think I ever will. All you care about is power. Collecting people, collecting gifts, only to use them like toys for your own amusement. You're like a child in a candy store. It's like you can't control yourself—but it isn't that. You don't even try. Every decision you make is out of selfishness and vanity, even when you're backed into a corner, you'll only change course to save your own skin. Even watching your decisions makes me feel…tainted. The way you plot and scheme, it makes me feel physically ill. What is it about me and my family that makes you think that any one of us would ever want to join you?"

"Standing on principle, are we?" He pressed, still holding his hand out in invitation. He would never grow tired of holding it there, so fixed it stayed, in the hopes that the vampire he so desired to have in his corner would change her mind. "Who is being selfish now? Think about your family Alice, your mate. They're in so much pain… And they don't have to be. You have the power to ease their suffering. Just say the word. Things needn't be so antagonistic between us."

"I…" She faltered, but only for a second, before she shook her head. In that instant she decided to acquiesce to him, just for an instant. And, Rosalie's words had rung true. Nothing that he had promised would come to pass if she gave in now. He would use her loved ones to guarantee her loyalty. Capture them, torture them. She wouldn't be party to that. "I think you know my answer is no, my answer will always be no, no matter what you promise or what you threaten. Release my family and let us go in peace."

Aro sighed, and merely seemed disappointed. She thought he might even grant her request, until a sudden crease formed in his brow. In that moment, a knot formed in her stomach. She saw herself, she saw her head coming off, and then she saw blackness.

"Gabriel." Aro called, his usually sickly-sweet voice dark with anger. "Take care of her."

She knew before her head rolled across the stones that she had failed them all.

Next thing she knew, Aro was clapping his hands together again, a cheshire grin painting his face from cheek to cheek as he surveyed their family. They were all standing, all in tact, as if the last few minutes had never come to pass.

 _It was all a vision?_ She wondered, her mind drawing the only possible conclusion. _No, no, I can't let that happen! I can't let this happen!_

"Oh, the Cullens! How wonderful it is of you to join us here!" Aro studied each of them as he had before. "But where is your dear wife, Carlisle? And Bella and Edward? Their precious child? Surely, you didn't leave them behind in Forks." Aro pretended to be crestfallen at the loss, but it was clear now that she had been his target all along in inviting them here.

"Wasn't it me you wanted to see?" She interjected, before her adoptive father could get a word in edgewise. She had to do something different, she had to change what was about to happen. Only, her words didn't trigger another vision. She wasn't headed in the right direction, not yet.


	9. Chapter 9

**Jasper**

He wrinkled his forehead in confusion, puzzled and concerned at Alice's outburst from seemingly left field. His wife was normally much more reserved. Unless she'd had a vision. But she would have told him about any such vision. Wouldn't she? Maybe she didn't have time to tell him, maybe it happened too quickly, maybe he had been distracted for a split second and missed it when she slipped into the zone. He was torn between calling her out on it, and stepping back in trust that she knew what she was doing. But, he didn't have a chance to decide which side of the argument would win.

"I thought we agreed to be civil about this? What are you doing?" Rosalie hissed at a volume that hopefully wouldn't carry across the throne room to Aro's ears. Alice turned to her with a look of fire, one that conveyed that she knew what she was doing and that Rosalie should shut up and follow her lead.

He tightly squeezed Alice's hand in silent support, fighting the urge to pull her closer to his side. He trusted her more than he trusted anyone else in the universe. If she insisted that she knew what she doing, then he would stand with her regardless of the consequences.

"My dear Alice, of course I wanted to see you. I wanted to see all of you. I merely wanted to wish all of you well and inquire how you were all getting along now. I can see that despite a few undue flair ups of tempers, you are all doing quite well. Perhaps, while you're here, you'd like to meet a couple of the newest additions to my own family." Aro's voice was a mixture of sickly sweet crooning and carefully measured persuasion. "Oliver, come on over and meet the Cullens." He flashed a manipulative smile at the partial clan. "Jasper, why don't you shake hands with Oliver to show your mate that there's nothing to be afraid of."

Jasper reached his hand out toward Oliver as Aro instructed, barely having time to register Alice's cry of protest before locking his hand around the other man's in greeting. "It's good to meet you, Oliver."

"I assure you, the pleasure is all mine." Oliver started as he raised his free hand in the air above Jasper's head and plucked at an invisible string that caused Jasper to fall to the ground at Alice's feet.

"Jasper! Aro, that was entirely uncalled for, and you know it. The least you could have done is share your demands before you start imprisoning us." Alice's protests went unheard as darkness surrounded Jasper.

"Wakey, wakey, Major, we have lots of work to do today!" Maria's shrill voice forced Jasper off his cot and out of the tent into the hot Texas sun.

 _What now? I've already killed my entire family. She can't possibly make things worse for me. I have to find a way out of this nightmare. If I spend another second trapped as the Major, trapped as her puppet, I may just lose my mind._ Jasper's thoughts reeled out of control as he followed his mistress to the prison tent. He gasped when she pulled back the flap to reveal his family, alive. Starved, weak, but very much alive.

"I thought… I thought they were all dead."

"Dead?!" Maria laughed at the absurdity. "I should say not! Though, by the time you're done with them, I should hope that they'll wish they were dead."

"Mistress…" Jasper hesitated for a long moment.

 _I killed them, I know that I killed them. Burned them, turned them all to smoke. Why is this happening again? What can I do to stop it? I can't let the Major take over. He'll kill them all again and not think twice about it. I can't let her use me like this. I refuse to be her puppet. I have to tread carefully here. But, I also have to do whatever it takes to make sure they live this time._

"Yes Major? Speak! What is it?! Surely, you aren't about to defy me. You will do what I say, and I say that I want you to whip them. All of them. Whip them until their skin hangs across their bones like scrapes of cloth across a loom. And I want you to start with… Her." Maria pointed at Alice with one hand while she unhooked the CoM tooth whip from her belt and handed it to Jasper. "It needs to be oiled with venom first. You better get started. I'll be checking in, Major."

Maria left the tent with Jasper still holding on to the whip, staring at his family like he was marching toward an executioner.

"I…" But what could he say? He couldn't apologize. He was sorry for being used by Maria as her puppet, but then they would ask why he didn't run away. And he had no answer for that question.

 _Enough of this!_ The Major roared within him before breaking to the surface, his voice taking on a much darker and more authoritative tone.

"Up against the wall, wench!" He roughly tugged on Alice's arm and positioned her where he wanted her before forcefully trapping her in place using a serious of CoM venom enhanced chains. "Count them, wench!"

Alice's sobs came quickly, each pass of the whip across her back more painful than the last. "92, 93, 94, 95." Jasper didn't stop until he had beat her a solid hundred times. He unsympathetically poured a vial of venom over the wounds to ensure they would burn for hours, if not days to come. The lack of blood in her system promised that she would continue to suffer, beyond what she already was for want of feeding.

"Next!" Jasper caustically demanded before pulling aside another of the Cullens to torture. "Hello, Nessie, let's just see how much a half-breed like you can take before breaking." He let out an almost wicked sounding laugh. "I'm not going to whip you, though. I think you'll respond better to something a little different." He unlocked a trunk in the corner of the tent and pulled out a full set of teeth from the Children of the Moon. "After this, you'll never want to lay eyes on that wolf of yours again." He carefully coated the teeth in venom before stripping Nessie down to her underwear. One by one he plunged the spikes into her soft skin, deep enough that she wouldn't be able to pull them out under her own power and far enough apart that by the time he was done her entire body would be burning. There were teeth down each of her arms and legs, across her chest, stomach and back, each of them worse than the last.

When he was done with Nessie, he gave Bella the same treatment. Quickly growing bored with the tedious, precise work, however, he reverted back to the whip for both Edward and Rosalie. When it came time to torture Esme, he was struck with an entirely different inspiration. He dislocated all her limbs and tied them at impossible angles so that it would be futile of her to even think about popping them back into place any time soon. Then, he took three vials of venom and forcefully poured them down her throat in quick succession. The funny thing about venom is that when you swallow your own, it acts like any other bodily fluid does, it's good for the body, but when you swallow venom from another vampire or a Child of the Moon, it has the opposite effect. It burns worse than being bitten, lasts a lot longer, and most importantly, it acts almost like a poison and dries up the affected vampire's own venom supply, leaving the victim on a fast-tracked road to desecration.

"The last two… What to do with you? Emmett and Carlisle… I know! Let's make this a competition." He retrieved a pair of floggers from the trunk and coated both of them with a very liberal amount of venom before positioning them about two feet apart against the tent wall and holding them in place with more chains. "The first one to cry 'uncle' wins the right to have their limbs ripped off and shipped to Uzbekistan. The loser will continue to be whipped until the sun goes down. I remind you, this is Texas, and it's summertime, and we started very, very early in the day. Sun down is a long time away, boys."

He started swinging the floggers with full force, smiling darkly with each crack the leather strands made against vampire flesh. Hours passed with neither one of them crying uncle. The sun went down and came up again, and still Jasper persisted with his beating. He wouldn't grow tired of this until a week had passed and he had already made up his mind that if neither one of them conceded the battle, then he would just kill them both and be done with it.

 _Please, Major, please just stop this, don't let her use you like this. You have more power than you think you do. Just drop the floggers and let's get out of here. The Cullens don't deserve this! Please, stop! Please. I don't want to hurt them, I'm not a monster any more, I'm not her puppet. I can't let this happen again, not a third time. Please, stop now and maybe it'll break Oliver's spell. Maybe. I hope that it will. Just stop!_

But, the Major didn't stop. When one torture ended, another one always started again. It was inescapable. In the end, the only thing that allowed him to return to blackness was throwing the last lifeless Cullen body into the pyre.

"Goodbye, Nessie, thanks for playing. I'll see you next time." He found himself saying. "Maybe I'll have an all new torture planned for you by then."


	10. Chapter 10

**Emmett**

"You presume to think that I have demands?" The vampire leaned back on his throne with a befuddled expression across his face, as if he would never dream of such a thing, but they all knew better. "Well, now that you mention it, I would appreciate a favor or two on your family's behalf if you were willing to volunteer it. What do you say, Alice?"

She paused, and he felt Rosalie stiffen that much more beside him.

"Don't tell me you're seriously considering it?" Emmett hissed. "We talked about this—it's the last thing any of us want, Ali."

"You don't understand." Alice sighed, turning back to face the lot of them, her expression becoming more and more pained. She looked to each of their faces, then to Jasper's limp and lifeless body on the ground. "This isn't how it was supposed to happen… And now I don't know how to stop it. I don't know if I can."

"Stop what?" He asked, but the way her expression darkened was answer enough for all of them.

 _Something horrible. Great. Just… Great. Now I feel like such an asshat for insisting that this was no big deal. I mean–Alice had it—she always has it. This was just another family vacation with an unfortunate errand along the way… But, it's not anymore. It's gone wrong. Whatever he's done to Jasper… It's definitely not a parlor trick, not with that look in Alice's eyes._

Before anyone could say more, the doors behind them swung open. They all turned their hands slightly at the noise of heels clicking against the marble floors. It was a vampire, a newborn, if the brightness of her red eyes were any indication, stepping over Jane's crumpled form as she entered the room. She seemed rather unconcerned about them as she walked around their group and straight up to Aro. Oliver seemed rather irritated by her entrance, by the way all the attention in the room was drawn away from him to her. Aro seemed especially taken with her, all warmth and smiles, the most sincere he had ever seen the aged vampire attempt to be.

"Ah, Robyn, my dear." He cooed, though his gaze lingered pointedly on the door from which she had come. "I suppose it's too much to ask that my two favorite girls get along?" He curled his fingers in a practiced manner, gesturing for her to move closer.

She murmured something the rest of them couldn't quite hear clearly, a sly smile on her lips. It was clear she had taken joy in besting Jane, and Aro didn't seem the least bit angry with her over her. The opposite, in fact. He was almost paternal.

 _If only she knew it was all an act._ Emmett thought bitterly. _I'm sure she wouldn't be so quick to perch herself on the edge of that throne of his if she knew he was about as genuine as those knockoffs Alice and Rosalie love to hate_.

"Wait!" Alice called, before Aro could introduce Robyn. She had moved herself almost in front of the rest of the group, as if she were trying to protect them from some physical threat as Robyn began to step down from where she stood beside Aro. "Let's… Let's just talk. Please. I'm here. I'm listening."

It was clear that whatever Alice had seen had perturbed them deeply. Emmett followed her lead and shifted Rosalie so that she stood behind him. He felt her hands twitch as he guided her, he knew she probably wanted to protest and tell him off more than she wanted to do anything else at that moment. But he hoped that, just this once, she would let him protect her, for whatever his protection was worth in the lion's den they had walked into.

"Are you really?" Robyn asked, her eyes shifting between each of us as she looked us over. Her expression was sharp, unforgiving, like she could see through each and every one of us. "Your mate… He's an empath. His gift… It's slippery, like a wet bar of soap, thanks to what Oliver's done to him. But, even with my tenuous grasp on it… I can tell that you aren't really listening. You know what the Volturi want from you… But, you're not ready to hear it. Not yet. You're distracted. You're afraid. You're stalling. You aren't opening up, not like you should be." She shrugged a little, as if it didn't matter, and suddenly he didn't feel quite so naked under her gaze. "Perhaps this will make you a little more… receptive."

She rose a hand in the air above Alice, but Aro shook his head subtly beside her, so she sighed, turning suddenly and plucking an imaginary string from the air in front of his chest. For an instant it was like the wind was being knocked out of him. He saw the ground fast approaching, and then the room spun.

The room was still spinning, but he wasn't in Volterra anymore. He was home, or at least in the house he had lived in when he had been human. His bedroom stank to high heaven of liquor, as did he, he imagined, with how difficult walking turned out to be when he went for the door.

 _This isn't right._ He realized, with stunning and sudden clarity as he knocked a half-empty mug to the ground, dark liquid spilling across his floorboards. _I'm no human. I shouldn't be drunk. I shouldn't be here. What am I doing here?_

Getting his body to comply with his commands was a challenge, but he managed to make his way out of the bedroom, using one hand against the wall to guide him towards the kitchen. It was exactly as he remembered it, wood stove and all. There were smudges around the edges of the door where errant pieces of soot had fallen, and a cabinet he hand once punched in a rage had a poorly-patched dent in it.

"I'm home." He whispered to himself, but the statement flooded him with feelings of regret and remorse, rather than the warmth and happiness he was sure many members of his family would feel if they were to revisit their own human lives.

But, he wasn't entirely sure this was his life. It was like walking through a memory, or a dream, especially as inebriated as he felt. He couldn't believe that it was real. Not until he had irrefutable proof.

 _Where are my brothers? My sister? My mother? Whatever is happening… They'll know._ In a dazed state, he stumbled through each of their rooms. They were perfectly preserved, exactly the way he would have expected to find them on any one day when he had been alive. It wasn't until he was outside that he realized that something was really and truly wrong. It was dawn, the sun just beginning to rise over the horizon, and not a single member of his family was anywhere to be found. He was searching the gardens in a half-ditch effort when he noticed something truly disturbing: a single drop of blood on one of the flagstones.

He frowned and followed a trail in the tall grass, the lines in the dirt making it appear as if an animal carcass had been dragged, but away from the house, instead of towards it.

"Why…?" But, the statement went unfinished as he came across a large ditch.

A shovel had been stuck into a large pile of dirt, while a deep, square hole had been dug in their back yard. It was a grave. He just didn't realize whose until he stepped up to the edge of the hole. He felt sick as he looked at their faces. His mother, his brothers, even his young sister—she wasn't even sixteen. They were all ashen from blood loss, their flesh torn apart at the neck. Unwanted images flashed across his eyes, his own teeth tearing into the throats of the people he loved, the bitter taste of copper flowing across his tongue. It wasn't the sweet taste he desired so much as a vampire, but instead the taste he remembered after biting his tongue as a human. It was metallic and it made his stomach knot. A ginger touch to his lips only added further proof that what he saw was true despite all logic. His fingers came back red and sticky with blood.

He promptly turned away from the fresh grave as the acidic contents of his stomach came back up. His head was pounding when he had finished vomiting, but his mind felt clearer. It was a painful, but grounding action.

 _This isn't possible. This isn't real. I didn't hurt them. I didn't hurt Rosalie. I'm not human. This is… This is whatever Oliver did to me, whatever Robyn did to me. I couldn't have done this._

But, the blood was literally on his hands, even as he denied it, he was assaulted with images that felt so real. He could remember feeling their flesh tear with the excessive force of his teeth, he could remember the way each one of them fought against him, his mother clawing, his sister kicking wildly, his brothers throwing him into a wall and sucker-punching him to try to stop the assault. But, nothing had deterred him.

 _It isn't real._ He tried to convince himself. _I'm not this monster!_

 _But, you are a monster._ His mind insisted, each fabricated memory reminding him of a real one, a real victim he had killed, purely for the pleasure of drinking their blood. Each shared something in common with his family. A young man whose hands showed how much hard work he did to keep his family afloat, much like his own brothers. A young woman who tied her hair back with a ribbon, much the same way his little sister once had. And his worst sin, a seemingly ordinary woman who had turned out to be a mother, a photo of her infant son prominent in the wallet he had taken to stage a mugging when he had covered up her death.

He wanted to argue with the person this strange, warped reality painted him out to be, but he wasn't sure that he had the right. He wasn't sure that he was right.

 _Maybe I deserve this._ He thought, as all faded to darkness.


	11. Chapter 11

**Carlisle**

Alice truly seemed to be in a state of panic now, and despite his outward facade, he was quite anxious himself. It wasn't like Aro to be quite this arrogant, quite this brazen, at least not the Aro he thought he had come to know almost an age ago.

"What happened to you, old friend?" He asked, as he pushed forward, in front of Alice, despite her vocal protests.

"He's out of his mind, that's what happened!" She hissed, so she wouldn't be overheard. "And, if you provoke him, you'll only be next!"

"Has the chasm between us really grown so wide? Was it really such a reach that I assumed your invitation was extended from the hand of friendship? What happened to cordiality and civility? Let's forget honor for a moment—where are your manners?"

He knew he was taking a chance. Regardless of the words coming out of his mouth, he knew Aro to be a taciturn fellow, though he had been honest in stating that he had expected his family to be treated differently than they now were. He had expected a few dirty tricks from the leader of the Volturi, but nothing on this scale. This felt like an attack more than the usual, diplomatic way the King usually tried to solve things.

Still, the words seemed to have some effect. Aro's smile became strained, and the rest of his face smoothed out in a stony, unreadable expression.

"I do regret that we no longer trust each other like we once did. Such a mind you have, Carlisle, it seems a waste that the two of ours are not more closely aligned. Your ability for literature, your appreciation of art and music, even your eye for future vampires has proven quite unique. But, I'm afraid that trust goes both ways. I once thought you would join my family, but you never intend to. You are disgusted by the natural way that vampires choose to live, just as your lifestyle seems so unnatural to me. Since you've raised up your progeny to believe the same, it seems you've become more enemy than friend." He nodded to Robyn, and I felt an inexplicable wave of terror shoot down my spine. "Still, I am sorry it could not be different."

It felt like a sucker punch to the stomach as she turned her gaze my way, a simple gesture of her fingers had my legs buckling under me, had my mind plunging into darkness, and in a moment that felt so much like being between dreaming and waking as a human, I realized that this had already happened once before.

The house in Forks was empty. My family was gone. I had let them down. I was alone. I could still taste human blood on my tongue, and I felt disgusted with myself when I realized that I wanted more of it. My body was literally burning in want for it, but I was frozen in place. I was tempted again, for the second time in a lifetime, to seek out human blood. I thought I could find some lowlife, some criminal, and end his existence, but I chased away the thought each time it came. Each time it was more tempting. I had no family now, no mate, no one to impress, no one to support, no one to be a perfect ideal to aspire to.

But, that wasn't the point. My abstinence from human blood had never been about being some sort of inspiration or leader. It had been about respect for human life. It had been about stopping myself from being the same kind of monster who had fed on and changed me on a whim. Still, I had finally realized my nightmare. I had become that monster, and it felt like there was no turning back, no redemption, despite the speeches I had given all my children save Rosalie and Bella.

It almost felt as if I was watching myself from a distance and not actually in control of my own body as I walked to the garage. I couldn't find whatever it was I had been looking for, the garage had been meticulously emptied, same as the rest of the house, so I continued on through another door to the side yard, then the back yard. Trees surrounded the property for miles on three sides, so it didn't take me long to reach my first one and put my fist through it. I had never been much of a fighter, not the way Jasper had, but I was still strong, and my aim was sure. Wood scattered in all directions as the force took down the tree. The mere thought of Jasper was painful, and I remembered every sparring session the boys had had in this very yard, I remembered training with the Quileutes to prepare for a newborn attack, and I hit tree after tree, after tree.

It looked like a hurricane had hit when it seemed I had finally finished, branches, bark, logs and splinters were absolutely everywhere. Several of the trees had even been yanked up from the roots, with fresh dirt still clinging to them where they sat. Everything was so still, so quiet as I took the scene in, but it felt unfinished, and when I began moving again, I realized why.

It wasn't until I began to smell smoke that I finally began to feel like I had woken up. There hadn't been a lighter, nor gasoline in sight to help me in my task, but I had learned to make fire the old fashioned way, with two pieces of wood and a little friction, and with all that lied around in the backyard and my supernatural speed, getting a flame going was mere child's play for me. It was building into a real fire, into a fire that would be hot enough, big enough, that was more the challenge.

 _Jasper had always been the expert at these things_. I thought with a pang of regret. It only seemed right that out of everyone, he probably would have been the most angry at me for failing. He, who felt the emotions of his victims, who wanted more than any of us to succeed. Maybe Rosalie and Bella had been more successful, but Jasper had always wanted it more deeply, more desperately than the rest of us. I had let him down the most. It seemed fitting that he would have been the best one to end his miserable existence, but alas, he was gone.

It was probably better this way, anyways. One last person's blood on Jasper' hands. _No,_ he retracted immediately, because that wasn't the last thought he wanted to have about his son; _Jasper would never do this. Not even if I baited him. Not even if I attacked him. Still, it's better this way_.

He stepped into the blaze quite willingly. It was painful, more painful than changing, more painful than the burn that came with resisting human blood, even more painful than the realization that the people he loved had left him for an eternity of solitude. Still, he endured. As he watched the purple smoke that floated up to the sky from his own flesh, he even felt a sense of peace.

 _It's over._

And then, he jerked awake from the castle floor with a gasp. Alice, Emmett, Jasper, and Rosalie all laid prone beside him, their eyes shut as if in sleep, but their bodies almost unnaturally still, like an image carved into stone.


	12. Chapter 12

**Aro**

His eyes immediately snapped to Oliver when Carlisle shot awake from the spell he had been put under. He watched as the younger man's eyes widened in disbelief. It had been the first either had seen of someone coming out from the effects of his gift of their own accord, and it was almost too far-fetched that it should be happening now, when it actually counted. He snapped his fingers once, then twice before he was understood, Oliver almost tripping over his own cloak in his urgency to put his hand in the King's.

It wasn't a trick. Oliver was arrogant, of course he thought himself better than most of the Volturi, Aro himself included, but those thoughts were nothing more than that. He had never acted on them. Instead, he had only ever acted on loyalty, implicitly trusting now as he had in his human life that the way to place himself in the world was to align himself with those in power. This was really happening, his power was failing, and he himself wasn't really certain why.

And it wasn't just Carlisle. As soon as one man got to his feet, another, then another woke, until the entire family was up on their feet, and none of the bunch looked very happy about it. Each took a step in his direction in turn, and he felt something like a stone in his stomach that he hadn't felt since Alice placed her hand in his that fateful night in Forks. Fear.


	13. Chapter 13

**Oliver**

There were all on the ground around him. The Cullens, the psychic among them that Aro so coveted lying right at his feet, the others spread around her. All three kings were subdued as well, each slouched in their thrones in a way that each would have found undignified had they been aware of it. Every member of the Volturi guard that had begun their day in the throne room or entered it since was lying on the floor, leaving little patches of stone showing between each of them. It was like a strange floor pattern, closed eyes and slouched bodies and small stretches of stone in-between.

He could feel their fear, the intensity of it from each and every one of them, feeding him, flowing through him, making him feel stronger, more alive, in a way that not even human blood could. It soothed something primal in him to feel so much power, to feel so in control, to know that each and every one of their fates were directly in his hands. He wasn't sure if he would keep them suspended there forever, or if he would destroy them, and move on to other targets.

He had almost forgotten his last target, his last obstacle, when the double doors creaked open again. _Only she would feel the need to push open both doors at once like that_ , he thought bitterly, forgetting the many other members of the guard that had made identical entrances. One of the doors caught on an inert vampire, but that didn't slow her down, she stepped around the fallen bodies like there was nothing out of the ordinary about them as she approached.

He tried to raise a hand to make her join them, but it was useless. Robyn was like a blank slate, her gift afforded her a kind of untouchability, but for all he knew she was just as fearless as she seemed. But, he apparently, wasn't. He hated this helpless feeling that overcame him as she approached, her eyes as dark as the black dress she was wearing.

"I'm hungry." She intoned, as if was his problem. "Playtime's over."

She raised one hand in the air and plucked at it with two delicate fingers, and he felt a wave of dizziness overcome him before his world went dark.


End file.
